Reviewing Shakespeare

Paul Prescott is Associate Professor of English at the University of Warwick, a Trustee of the British Shakespeare Association and a teaching associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has published widely on theatre history, contemporary performance and creative pedagogy, and is currently completing a short biography of Sam Wanamaker, founder of the Globe. His work has appeared in publications including The New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, The Blackwell Companion to Shakespeare and Performance and Shakespeare Survey. He is the co-founder of wwww.yearofshakespeare.com and www.reviewingshakespeare.com.

'Reviews of theatre performances are often regarded as transitory and of little weight. In this critically astute study, Paul Prescott rescues them from oblivion. The result is a book of genuine intellectual and social significance which makes an original and valuable contribution to cultural history.' Stanley Wells, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

• 1. An introduction to the night-watch constable; 2. Tradition and the individual talent: reviewing the Macbeth actor c.1740s–1890s; 3. New journalism, new critics c.1890–1910; 4. The reviewer in transition c.1920–60; 5. New contexts, new crises (1997–2012): reviewing from the opening of Shakespeare's Globe to the World Shakespeare Festival 2012; Works cited.